By Kevin Siembieda

One game system – every genre – countless worlds – endless adventure

The 2018 Christmas Surprise Package season is over! We shipped the last of them on Monday and Tuesday, and boy, were there a lot of them. Awesome. We are glad so many of you (as usual) enjoy this exciting Grab Bag offer. That’s why we’ve done them for 20 years. A selection of the last of your comments appear elsewhere in this Update. Our thanks for your generous praise and helpful observations and suggestions. They help to inspire us and let us know what you are looking forward to and what you’d like to see in the future. Based on this season’s many comments, our plans for the next 18 months are exactly what many of you want to see.

Many of you have expressed your pleasure to see Palladium offer lower cost subscriptions for The Rifter®, even though it will go on hiatus after issue #84. We are very happy to oblige. You now have three choices: 1) The standard 4 issue subscription starting with #81, 2) a three-issue subscription of #82, #83, #84, and 3) a two-issue subscription for #83 and #84. Each subscription offers a lower than cover price and free shipping in the USA. Also take a look a the Rifter® Sale in which most available back issues can be acquired for only $9.99 each, and there are many great issues throughout the entire history of The Rifter®. Most are also available on DriveThruRPG as PDFs.

Now that the Surprise Packages are done and over, we can focus most of our time and attention on finishing game books and getting them into your hands. In fact, when I’m not outside shoveling snow from the storm that is coming this weekend, I’ll be working on Rifts® Bestiary™ Volume One. It is going to be a great resource for monsters, creatures, riding animals, pets and adventure ideas.

After it, I’ll be working on the Dead Reign®: In the Face of Death™ sourcebook, Rifts® Bestiary™ Volume Two, The Rifter® #83, and not necessarily in this order, Garden of Gods™ (Fantasy), Rifts® Antarctica™, Rifts® Chaos Earth®: Psychic Scream™, Rifts®: The Disavowed™, The Rifter® #84, and a number of other books and projects like Beyond the Supernatural™ sourcebooks. We’ll probably slip in a couple of Raw Preview Editions soon as well as a new and improved Palladium website that will work much more smoothly with mobile devices, and a number of other books you are expecting along with a few surprises. I don’t want to reveal too much until we get a lot of the books listed above into your hands first. Read on for more details on specific books and game lines.

SALE! The Rifter® Subscriptions – available now

Each subscription whether for 4, 3, or 2 issues of The Rifter® provides the same savings off the cover price plus FREE shipping to subscribers in the USA only.

We appreciate your loyalty and years of support, so we are happy to offer you these subscription savings and the convenience of FREE shipping right to your doorstep. It is also a way for newcomers to try these excellent sourcebooks and gaming tools. Every Rifter® is packed with adventure ideas and source material that can be adapted to most Palladium world settings. These Rifter® subscription options are all available now. We are also offering a corresponding Rifter® Back Issues Sale, see details below.

SALE! Rifter® Back Issues only $9.99 each – on sale till January 31

In conjunction with the Rifter Subscription offers, above, most available issues of The Rifter® are on sale for only $9.99 each. This is a limited time offer now through January, while supplies last. Please note that a few issues of The Rifter® are very low and could sell out. Available only while supplies last and sold on a first come, first served basis.

UPDATE: The Rifter® #83

Wayne is reviewing material to go into this issue of The Rifter® and there is still time for you to contribute to the next issue.

Rifts® source material.

Heroes Unlimited™ source material.

Palladium Fantasy® source material

News, coming attractions, product descriptions and more.

96 pages – $14.99 retail – Cat. No. 183 – coming soon.

Negatives and Original Art

People are really starting to get into the one-of-a-kind negatives of old books. Cool, because I think they look great and I love them. I hang onto a few select pieces, but I have been offering most for sale in my ebay store and at conventions. There are several freelancers who snap up their favorite art and text pages as they become available, and we saw an ever-increasing number of negative requests in Surprise Packages this past season. Of course, original artwork is always popular and both are available in my ebay store, along with limited editions, rare RPG books from my own collection, toys and other collectibles. Alex and I recently added some Charles Walton artwork and a few dozen negatives (Cyber-Knights, Mindwerks, Rifts Index 2, and others). If there is a page you might be interested in, contact us, tell us which book and which page(s), and we’ll see if it is available for your consideration.

UPDATE: Rifts® Bestiary, Volume One

This is my number one focus. I want to wrap this up and get it to you!

The two upcoming Rifts® Bestiary books will be great resources for players and G.M.s alike, with creatures that can be used as familiars, pets, riding animals, guard animals, and in some cases, even unlikely allies. Others are slobbering monsters or malicious predators who include humans and D-Bees among their prey. All will give you plenty of spice to add to your characters and adventures. And each has a map that shows at a glance exactly where to find these beasts.

Monsters and animals of Rifts North America organized into two big, easy to use sourcebooks.

UPDATE: In the Face of Death™, a sourcebook for Dead Reign®

I’m going to try to finish this title quickly. Some writing is done and I am burning with ideas. Some of the art is also done and I will be assigning more to two additional artists.

UPDATE: Garden of the Gods™

I’m hot to finish this title and may release it as a Raw Preview first. Must wait until the two Rifts® Bestiary books come out before I can jump into it. Assigning art and making notes as new ideas hit me. Already have a few artists lined up.

UPDATE: Rifts® Antarctica™

Matthew Clements’ Rifts® Antarctica™ manuscript has been handed over to freelancer writer Carmen Bellaire for fine tuning and adding some material that Carmen and I brain-stormed and want to include in this World Book. The final book is going to be fantastic. The finished John Zeleznik cover painting should arrive by the end of January. I will be assigning the interior art soon and may put this bad boy on the fast-track to publication. It’s nice to have both Matthew and Carmen writing books again for Palladium as I love working with those two.

UPDATE: Rifts® Chaos Earth® Psychic Scream™

The cover is finished and I cannot wait to finish the editing and writing additions to this one.

UPDATE: Rifts® Chaos Earth® First Responders™

UPDATE: Beyond the Supernatural™ sourcebooks

The books that are screaming to be unleashed from my brain are Beyond Arcanum™ and the Tomes Grotesque. So much so, that I’ve been making notes and writing bits and pieces of BTS sourcebooks when I can no longer contain them. It has come to my attention that some folks seem to think these books are mostly written and sitting on a shelf. I wish. While I do have a large number of handwritten notes and some bits written on the computer, most of these books are locked inside my head. Percolating for years now. Beyond the Supernatural™ is one of my personal favorite game settings and I have been longing to write these titles for years. Unfortunately, other obligations and business matters prevented me from working on what is a passion project for me. In fact, once we start releasing product for BTS™ they should continue to come at a regular pace. We anticipate these books to be released in the latter half of the year.

Other Titles

Other RPG titles are in the works or the final manuscript stage awaiting review. So if a book you are waiting for was not mentioned, it means there is nothing new to report, but it should be in the pipeline and news for it will be coming in the weeks ahead. Right now, we are focused on releases for the next 4-5 months.

New on DriveThruRPG.com – Rifts® Heroes of Humanity™ sourcebook

New – Rifts® Heroes of Humanity™ presents the Coalition’s response to the escalating Minion War™ crisis, uniting D-Bees, mages and heroes of every stripe to stand against this latest Demon Plague. This an extinction level event, unless it can be stopped. Taking the lead is the Coalition States, but are they really heroes of humanity, or simply the lesser of two evils one must work with to save the world? Get some answers in this Sourcebook: CS psychics and Psi-Battalion, CS Demon Hunter, new CS power armor, cyborgs, gear, training and more. Just one of 200+ Palladium PDF titles available on DriveThruRPG.

So you want to be a Megaversal Ambassador

1) What is an MA?

Answer: The MAs (Megaversal Ambassadors) are a growing group of Palladium Game Masters who volunteer to run Palladium role-playing gaming events and/or demos at conventions, stores and other gatherings to introduce NEW PLAYERS to the Palladium Megaverse®. They are also active talking about Palladium products and the enjoyment and merits of role-playing, online and at events, to get new players interested in Palladium’s games and to keep the enthusiasm alive among established gamers.